


blind, dumb, deaf

by knifepvrty



Category: Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (TV)
Genre: Feelings Realization, First Kiss, Fluff, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Pining, also jo is wlw, brad/jo bestfriendism so true, implied dana/rachel, these mfs gay, though not at first.. but you'll see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28327428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knifepvrty/pseuds/knifepvrty
Summary: Jo is picking on Brad and David. David doesn't know why. Brad does.
Relationships: Brad Bakshi/David Brittlesbee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	blind, dumb, deaf

**Author's Note:**

> hello braddavid nation!! this is actually my first attempt at writing fanfiction but im kinda proud of how it turned out and i had to get this idea out of my system,,,, so yeah enjoy
> 
> title is from blind dumb deaf by cocteau twins bc apparently im not creative when it comes to titles

Friday. 7 PM. It’s been rough for everyone working at the Mythic Quest headquarters in the past couple of weeks. David lost count on how many meetings he had to endure in a week, and he certainly doesn’t remember the last time he felt so exhausted. He sighs for the hundredth time that day. Elbows propped up on the table, he presses his hands to his ears in a poor attempt to block out Poppy and Ian’s constant bickering echoing through the meeting room; wonders if all his hard work, all the pep talks he gives his coworkers to boost their morale up, all the cookies he rewards himself with are in vain. He glances around the table.

Rachel and Dana are visibly bored. They are snuggling and trying not to fall asleep, Dana’s head resting on Rachel’s shoulder, Rachel’s head on Dana’s. Jo looks like she’s about to murder someone, but given how she is, it’s no surprise. Brad is uncharacteristically silent, though. In situations like this, Brad would usually just sit, his back leaned against his chair, arms and legs crossed, watching and observing, never interfering, a smug smirk on his face. Now, he’s just keeping his head down. He tries not to show it, but he’s bothered by something; David can tell. He assumes it might be because of a quarrel Brad had with Jo, because he noticed how they deliberately don’t look at each others’ direction. It’s odd, because he knows she is one of the very few people Brad cares about. As odd as the fact that Brad can actually care about others. He has no clue what the issue is, but he knows both of them well enough to know they are too stubborn to be the bigger person and apologize to anyone. He figures he would take matters into his own hands and smooth things over between them once this whole turmoil dies down a little bit. He makes a quick mental note to ask Brad about it first.

How funny is it, David muses, that he thought Brad was so intimidating and perhaps didn’t like him at first, but then got so close to him over the last few months that he doesn’t even think twice about approaching him anymore. Bonding with a guy who everyone hates is something David’s not accustomed to. It gets even harder to get used to when that guy treats you differently now than he treats the others. Brad has a mean demeanor, sure, he’s manipulative, sure, he’s a sociopath, sure. But it’s all insignificant to David now, because he’s nothing of the sort when they are alone. It makes David feel… special. He can’t help but smile at the thought, his cheeks flushing.

“Is there a special someone you’re thinking of, David?” He’s caught off guard when Jo asks him, suddenly, with a bite behind it.

“Huh?” David doesn’t know how to respond. “What- what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, please,” Jo says. “Some of us are trying to make progress while you’re out here thinking about your boyfriend like a high school girl. How cute.” She grimaces with disgust.

The way Brad glares at Jo is probably louder than anything he could have said that day, but maybe David is deaf, because he has absolutely no idea what the hell is going on. He feels like his brain stopped functioning completely. _Boyfriend?_ His mind is too fixated on the word that he doesn’t realize Ian and Poppy had finally cut it out.

“Okay everyone,” Ian says loudly. “I know these last few days have been a little hard on all of us, but we gotta be patient. Let’s take five, come back here, and get this over with. Just one last meeting, guys.”

The room is filled with chair screeching sounds, sighs and groans. David drags himself to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He can’t think straight, his head is pounding. He spots Dana and Rachel in the corner. Maybe he should ask them for some painkillers.

“Hey, women.” David approaches the two. “Do you have any painkillers?”

“Yeah, I think I do,” Dana says. “just give me a minute.” She exits the kitchen to look for the pills, leaving Rachel and David alone.

“So...” Rachel speaks after a moment of silence, “What was that about?”

“You mean Jo? I don’t know. The stress must be getting to her. Maybe messing with people is her unhealthy way of coping with it.”

“Yeah, maybe,” she replies. “but I was referring to something else.”

“...What are you talking about?”

“Are you and Brad... you know... dating?”

He swears his head is going to explode.

He gets defensive almost instantly, eyes goggling, cheeks flushing harder than ever. “What?! Of course not! That’s insane! Where’s- where’s that coming from?”

“Look, man, I’m not trying to embarrass you or anything. You know you have my support, right? You don’t have to keep it secret, but whatever floats your boat.”

“Rachel. We’re not... I’m not dating him.”

“Oh.” Rachel says. “But you like him.” she states, lifting her brows quizzically, as if to get a confirmation out of him.

David furrows his brows, tilts his head. “...No?”

Rachel just stares at him, an incredulous look on her face. He reminds her of the time when she was in denial, when she kept repeating to herself that she absolutely did not have a crush on Dana. She smiles, “Okay, D-Man. Whatever you say.” says playfully. He will figure it out on his own anyway. Just like she did.

David opens his mouth to protest, but Dana’s unexpected “hey!” cuts him off. They both turn to watch her enter the room. She approaches them, hands him the pill. “There you go.”

“T- thanks, Dana.”

“Anytime.” Dana senses something is up. She raises a brow. Rachel puts a hand on her back, smiles at David halfheartedly and gestures her out of the room. David watches them leave. Rachel’s definitely going to tell her all about this later.

He chugs the water down with the pill, the sensation of the cool liquid running down his throat collecting him together, clearing out the fog in his head, allowing him to think more clearly. About work. About Brad. About Jo. About Rachel.

About Brad.

David’s heart starts to race. 

He likes Brad, of course. He likes the way he can get whatever he wants. He likes the way he can crush anyone who’s on his way. He likes the way people fear him. Maybe he is too harsh, too bold, too much of an asshole for his liking. Still, David grew to admire even the bad traits of his no one approves of. They make him _him_ , after all. And he’s all the things David wants to be. He’s also objectively attractive, he has to give him that.

David doesn’t have a crush on Brad. That’s silly. He’s not into guys, he would have known if he was. Plus, it doesn’t always mean you have a crush on someone just because you think they look like a model. For David, saying Brad is good-looking is like saying water is wet: it’s a fact, evident, undisputable.

His heart is beating faster now. That simple biological reaction to the mere thought of Brad speaks volumes. But then again, David is deaf.

-

The last meeting of the day is about to start. David heads towards the meeting room, a lump manifesting itself in his throat. The tension is still there, but it’s slightly different than the one he felt the entire week. This time, it’s the tension of not knowing what’s going to happen next.

He’s a little taken aback to see Jo, who’s sitting on Brad’s usual seat. She looks up from her laptop and gives him a close-mouthed smile. David returns it awkwardly. He chooses not to say anything and sits down across from her. Everyone is there except for Ian and Brad, he realizes.

He notices Brad walking up to the room. When he enters, David shifts in his seat; averts his eyes from him almost immediately to look down in front of him and crosses his arms. There’s a beat.

“What are you doing?”

“Just sitting.” Jo replies nonchalantly with a fake smile.

Brad scoffs. “Yeah, on _my_ seat.”

“I didn’t realize we had assigned seats.”

“Seriously? I was sitting there five minutes ago.”

“And I’m sitting here now.” 

He rolls his eyes. “How long is this gonna go on?”

“Why do you want this seat so bad anyway?” She pretends she didn’t hear him.

Another beat. The tension in the room is palpable. David gulps.

“Jo.”

“Oh, because it’s easier to make eyes at David from here?”

Dead silence.

_What the fuck?_

-

David spent the entire weekend in his house, with a bottomless pit in his stomach. No amount of water he splashed his face could make the heat in his cheeks go away. He wanted to disappear, evaporate into thin air. All he could do was contemplate, hoping it would get him somewhere. 

This was where he got him so far: Brad might _actually_ have feelings for David. He always kind of assumed Brad wasn’t the type to fuck around on stuff like this, and because he saw Brad go absolutely mortified that day for the first time ever, David took it to be true. Brad could have easily laughed it off and made a snarky comeback. He could. But he didn’t.

He wanted to call him. Ask him if it was true. Ask him how he was doing. Reassure him. Be there for him. Tell him it was okay. Tell him they were still friends. Tell him it wasn’t going to change anything. Tell him he...

Oh.

Well, shit.

-

Monday rolls around. The first thing David decides to do when he steps foot into the MQ building is look for Rachel, and preferably, not run into Brad. At least not yet.

He finds her sitting on the couch next to Dana in the testers’ room. Rachel’s hair looks a bit... disheveled. He decides not to think too much of it.

“Hey, gi- women!” His tone is a bit high-pitched than usual. “Uh, Dana, do you think I could borrow Rachel from you real quick?”

“Yeah, of course.” Dana says. Rachel gets up, leaves the room, closes the door behind her.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Rachel says. David doesn’t answer. Instead, he grabs Rachel by the wrist and drags her towards the nearest corner he could spot. He looks around to make sure no one else can see them.

Rachel is obviously bewildered. “David? What’s going on?”

“How did you know?”

“How did I know what?”

“You know what I’m talking about! How did you know? That I...” he leans in to whisper this part, “...like him?”

“Oh, that.” her confusion gives its way to contentment. “Well, I see the way you two look at each other. Anyone would be too stupid not to notice. Except maybe you guys.”

“Uh-huh. You think others noticed it too?”

“Probably.”

“Yeah. Okay. Um... what am I gonna do?”

Rachel hums. “Did you talk to Brad at all?”

“No. What if he never wants to talk to me again? Oh, god.” He wipes off his palms with his shirt.

She stares at him. “Dude, he basically confessed to having a crush on you by not saying anything. He probably thinks _you_ would never want to talk to him. That’s why you should approach him first.”

“Fuck, okay.” He puts his hands on his hips, thinks for a moment. “Okay. Yeah. Alright. I’ll do it.”

“Way to go!” She flashes him a genuine smile. David returns it.

-

David heads to his office he shares with Brad and braces himself before entering the room in case Brad is there. He’s a bit relieved and also surprised to find out that he is not, but his stuff are left on his desk. David sits at his own desk, exhales loudly and forces himself to begin to work.

His attention is somewhere else, though. He checks his watch every two minutes, and even though only twenty minutes have passed, he’s way too worried. His head begins to cloud over with questions, never asked out loud, never been answered: _Is he avoiding me? Does he hate me? What if he doesn’t want to talk right now? Does he think I’m mad at him?_ And, as if he didn’t talk about this with Rachel less than an hour ago: _What am I gonna do?_

He’s in too deep. The sound of his heartbeat feels too much, too loud for him. That’s probably why he almost doesn’t hear the door being opened.

David tries to gain his composure when he watches Brad sit at his desk. His expression is hard to read. 

“Good morning.” Even though he knows Brad hates it, David tries to initiate some sort of small-talk. To let him know that _hey, look! I’m not mad at you._

“Morning.” Brad replies, barely audibly. His heart’s not in it.

David’s heart tightens. Brad didn’t even care to look at his direction. He looks down in front of him.

The silence between them is becoming more and more uncomfortable. They know they removed the divider in their office a few months ago, but it feels like it’s come back and turned into a wall instead. David’s desperate to break it. He doesn’t know how.

Some time later, Brad stands up. David looks up at him. As he grabs the door’s handle, he throws a glance at David. Then, he pulls the door close behind him, leaving David alone.

Brad’s eyes can make David do stupid things. Sometimes they make him baffled. Sometimes warm. And now, there was something about that look that made him want to follow Brad. Normally, as much as he would want to, he would hold himself back. But it’s different this time. He gets up from his seat and leaves their office as well.

Brad is standing in front of the elevator’s doors. _The rooftop,_ David thinks to himself. It’s where David goes whenever he feels like the walls of the building are closing in on him. It’s his shelter. Perhaps it’s Brad’s too. He quickens his pace to catch Brad, but the doors close before he can. He takes the other elevator.

The doors open. He sees Brad leaning on the ledge, his head turned upwards. David approaches him with careful steps and stands next to him. It’s cool outside.

“Hey.” David’s voice is low so as to not startle Brad.

“Hi.”

“You come here often?”

“I guess so.”

Silence.

“Look, Brad-“

“We don’t have to talk about it, you know,” he cuts him off. “I understand if you want to pretend like nothing happened, or if you never want to talk to me anymore, whatever. All I can say is that I’m sorry you had to find it out that way.”

“So... it’s true?”

“Yeah. Pretty off for a guy who has no emotions, huh?”

David doesn’t say anything to that. Instead: “What if I said it’s mutual?”

Brad turns his head to look at him. “What?”

David bites his lower lip. “I like you too.” Cards on the table. Brad stares at him in disbelief.

Brad’s eyes can make David do stupid things. The moment he sees Brad’s cheeks go red, the thought of kissing him crosses his mind. He’s feeling brave. He decides to act on it. So, he leans in and plants a soft kiss on Brad’s lips.

The kiss is brief, but it’s enough to make both of their heads swim. David presses their foreheads together. They stare at each other’s eyes; grinning, soon laughing, elated.

After a moment, David pulls back. “I’m curious... Why did Jo do that?”

“Oh, you know how she has this crush on someone?” David doesn’t. “I pissed her off because she was talking about her and I wasn’t really in the mood to listen, and she talks about her all the time anyway. I don’t remember what I said, but it was probably kind of rude. She had to get back at me somehow. The only leverage she had over me was that she knew I had feelings for you.”

“She’s insane for that.”

“That’s why I like her.” Brad smiles.

“You’re not mad at her?”

“Eh. I was at first, but not anymore. I know we will reconcile eventually. Besides,” Brad beams, takes a step closer to David and leans in, “how can I be mad at her when I finally have... this?” He cups David’s cheeks.

David grins. “Will I ever understand you two?”

Brad chuckles at that. He would have probably said no if he asked this exact question a few months ago, when him and David were not as close and intimate. Now, Brad’s response is different.

“Maybe you will.”

Brad’s lips feel unbelievably soft, David thinks. He wonders if he’ll ever get used to the sensation. Or to calling Brad, of all people, his boyfriend.

Maybe he will.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so so much for reading this until the end and please let me know what you think <3!!


End file.
